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holmes_minorTitle: It Leads
Author: gardnerhill
Fandom: ACD
Pairing: None
Word Count: 221b
Rating: G
Warning: Blood.
Summary: A man’s profession finally follows him home.
Author's Notes: Written for the September 2022 Holmes Minor monthly prompt “Shades of Red.”
Story in Dreamwidth
Story in AO3
A journalist and newspaper editor knows well the ugly side of London. I’ve covered enough ghastly news stories in my life. Many of them involved murder that came with bloodshed. I winced the first few times but soon acclimated to the sight and smell. In time I not only got used to that sight of fresh blood, I thrilled to the evidence of a crime that would make a gripping and profitable story for my paper.
Of course, as with everything in life, things become different when they directly affect you yourself. In my case, it was a horrific and bloody murder that occurred literally on my doorstep – and no mere stabbing but a throat-cutting. I had never before seen so much blood in one place, so thick and deep near the corpse that a mouse would drown.
The authorities came, the detectives inspected the evidence, the body was carted away, and my stairs were washed down, but not all the water in England will wash my steps clean in my mind. I still see all of them; the scarlet nearest the body, darkening to crimson at the edges, dulling to brick-tones at the periphery.
Now? It could be a ribbon in a little girl’s hair, a royal robe, a tape round legal papers. But all I see now is blood.
Author: gardnerhill
Fandom: ACD
Pairing: None
Word Count: 221b
Rating: G
Warning: Blood.
Summary: A man’s profession finally follows him home.
Author's Notes: Written for the September 2022 Holmes Minor monthly prompt “Shades of Red.”
Story in Dreamwidth
Story in AO3
A journalist and newspaper editor knows well the ugly side of London. I’ve covered enough ghastly news stories in my life. Many of them involved murder that came with bloodshed. I winced the first few times but soon acclimated to the sight and smell. In time I not only got used to that sight of fresh blood, I thrilled to the evidence of a crime that would make a gripping and profitable story for my paper.
Of course, as with everything in life, things become different when they directly affect you yourself. In my case, it was a horrific and bloody murder that occurred literally on my doorstep – and no mere stabbing but a throat-cutting. I had never before seen so much blood in one place, so thick and deep near the corpse that a mouse would drown.
The authorities came, the detectives inspected the evidence, the body was carted away, and my stairs were washed down, but not all the water in England will wash my steps clean in my mind. I still see all of them; the scarlet nearest the body, darkening to crimson at the edges, dulling to brick-tones at the periphery.
Now? It could be a ribbon in a little girl’s hair, a royal robe, a tape round legal papers. But all I see now is blood.
no subject
Date: 2022-09-19 12:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-09-19 08:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-09-19 09:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-09-19 08:43 pm (UTC)